The New Zealand medical journal
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Concerns over New Zealand's health workforce sufficiency, distribution and sustainability continue. Proposed solutions tend to focus on supplying medical professionals to meet predicted numbers or to resolve distributional problems. ⋯ A recent study on New Zealand's health workforce planning, which focused less on medical workforce numbers and more on the system's organisation and constituent interrelations, highlights the use of complementary methods to define the problems and design a range of policy responses. Core to deciding on suitable interventions is the use of analysis tools, such as judgement-based approaches, which are commensurate with the actual levels of uncertainty being experienced, and which complement quantitative predictive forecasting.
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Editorial Historical Article
Twenty-one years of saving lives: The New Zealand Resuscitation Council.
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To examine levels of reporting of violence and aggression within a tertiary level emergency department in New Zealand, and to explore staff attitudes to violence and reporting. ⋯ Reports of violence and aggression in the emergency department underestimate the true incidence. Failure to report has potential impacts on organisational recognition of risk and the ability to develop appropriate policy responses.
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Pelvic fractures constitute between 0.3% and 4% of all paediatric injuries, with a mortality rate up to 25%. This study aims to review the experience with pelvic fractures at Starship Children's Hospital and demonstrate its role as a marker of severe trauma. ⋯ Pelvic fractures represent an important marker for severe trauma. Patterns of paediatric pelvic fractures reported by other studies around the world are very similar. Understanding the patterns in which pelvic fractures and their associated injuries occur and the outcome of treatment is fundamental to the establishment of effective preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
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The aim of the present observational study was to provide a description of the demographic, psychological and pain characteristics of patients attending the Waitemata Pain Services (WPS), Auckland, New Zealand. ⋯ There are important sex- and ethnicity-related differences in the clinical presentation of chronic pain patients attending a large, hospital-based New Zealand pain service. While service provision can be based on generalised guidelines, specific interventions should be informed by important demographic and cultural variables. Studies are needed to identify strategies to improve service delivery in subgroups of the population who may be undertreated or lack access to appropriate interventions.